Ten Famous Comedians Talk Onstage Style

Outside of a few eccentric exceptions, most comics aren't memorable for their clothing choices. Why should they be? Comedy is, after all, primarily a verbal experience, delivered by the sort of people who would win gold in the Self-Deprecation Olympics. But doing anything performative will invite judgments from those watching, which in turn forces the performer to consider what kind of judgments they're prompting — and whether they can manipulate them to their advantage.

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The stuffy formalwear of dinner clubs may be old news for most, but a leather jumpsuit à la Eddie Murphy probably also wouldn't fly among the PBR drinkers at a low-key comedy club in Manhattan. Even George Carlin transitioned from looking like the talent at a Bar Mitzvah to looking like he arrived at his shows in a smoky VW van (before he switched to his all-out beatnik black).

With the combination of the Internet and television enabling today's comedy to be smaller-scale and more accessible, the sartorial spectrum is weighted more toward casualness than ever before. And for comedians right now, there's an entirely new dress code to abide by, hinging on factors like keeping the crowd's attention on the punchlines and wanting to seem at least vaguely attractive and put-together, all while not alienating anyone in the crowd.

We talked to a handful of funny people to get their take on clothing in comedy, and how much thought — if any — they put into the part of their act aside from the punchlines.

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Judah Friedlander

There's a visual element to every performance, especially for Judah Friedlander, whose stand-up character is a cocksure karate world champion who likes to show off his title on his clothes. "My shirt and my hat always say World Champion in some language. English, Spanish, Chinese, 'Star Wars' language, which is also known as Aurebesh, mermaid language," he said. "The World Champion's had sex with enough mermaids where he's picked up the language."

The New York-based comic has performed since 1989, but is perhaps better-known as the schlubby, catchphrased-hat-wearing Frank on 30 Rock. Just don't call Friedlander a hipster — he's rocked his signature shaggy style of oversized glasses and a trucker hat long before they were trendy staples, and hasn't let up since they started to fade. "The World Champion is like a living legend, he's like a living superhero," he said. "He doesn't need to be on-trend."

Friedlander pulls inspiration from every corner of the entertainment world, and says he's been inspired by everyone from the Three Stooges and Andrew Dice Clay to Hulk Hogan, Tom Jones, and even Elvis. "My hat, my T-shirt, they all have a long history," he said. "It's not just something that I thought would look cool… There's a lot of thought that goes into every single thing I wear."

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Mike Lawrence

Before he filmed his half-hour special for Comedy Central a few weeks ago, Mike Lawrence had just one request for the hair and makeup people: "Make sure I still look poor." And although he doesn't put too much thought into what he wears onstage (besides a fondness for comic book T-shirts), the New York-based comic said it's important that the clothes match the set. "And I've got kind of a dumpy, sad act," he explained.

Lawrence has one rule he's a stickler for, though: no shorts on stage. "I think it's that one thing of tradition. I love the idea of knowing that George Carlin did stand up for over 50 years and I will never know what his legs looked like," he said. "Like Rodney Dangerfield might have two pegs under there but I don't know and I don't care."

Lawrence added that showing too much leg can serve to break down the "elusiveness" of comedy. "You should reveal, but there should be something left to the imagination. And I think legs are a good start."

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Kristen Schaal

Funnygirl Schaal doesn't believe in a dress code for comedians, but puts a lot of thought into her appearance and sticks to her own style for what to wear on stage, preferring to rock '40s-style dresses that "drape over a beer belly." "I've gotta be able to move and be able to duck out of the way of a flying beer bottle or whatever," she joked.

Schaal compared dressing for a performance to dressing for church, and thinks it's important to appear respectful. "I've always felt like the stage for me is kind of a sacred space and it's a privilege to be on it," she said.

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Pat Dixon

Pat Dixon, a member of the ever-shrinking club of men like Paul F. Thompkins and John Mulrooney who still perform in suits, said he never wanted to stray from the traditionalism of talk show hosts like Johnny Carson and David Letterman. "I wanted people to just listen to what I was saying and not be preoccupied with my clothes," he said about performing in a suit. "Then it kind of backfired and people were like, 'Hey, I really like this character you're doing.'"

Dixon added that he thinks dressing in a suit subtly changes his whole performance, although he doubts anyone would notice a difference except for him. "In a suit, there's some kind of an association with it, and I go a certain way. I stand a certain way. I walk around different, I speak differently."

But having a formal persona can become trying, even for someone who is recognized for it. "You do get tired of it," he admitted. "I only own so many suits. You put 'em on and you put 'em on and it gets to be a uniform, of course."

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Annie Lederman

In addition to juggling an arsenal of jokes and any lingering performance anxiety, a comedian needs to keep in mind whether the image they're projecting in their set matches the way that they present themselves — sometimes down to their underwear.

"I wear a padded bra every day, but I take it off before I go on, because I want to be flat-chested on stage so I can talk shit about my tits," said comedian Annie Lederman, who performs around Los Angeles and has made appearances on Chelsea Lately.

Although women today hold their own in the stand-up world, comedy is still largely a boys' club — so much so that when she first started performing, Lederman admitted she made a point to dress like a tomboy, reasoning that she was already going to be objectified for being a woman. And while she now gets a little more "girled-up" and has no fear in donning high heels, Lederman still has to make sure she doesn't look too attractive, in case it might put off anyone in the audience from finding her funny.

"I want to look good, but I don't want women to think I want to fuck their husbands," she said. "You don't want to look like a predator."

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Godfrey

Comfort is definitely important for the New York-based Godfrey (just one name, like Cher), who described his comedy as "a cool conversation with the audience." But looking sharp is a priority.

"If I have a T-shirt, I want it to be the coolest T-shirt ever," he said. "My sneakers are the fucking key though. That tops it all off."

The comic and actor, who has most recently made appearances on shows like Louie, said he enjoys using the combination of his clothes and his race to surprise people, doing things like wearing a shirt with Steve McQueen or Johnny Cash.

"They go, 'Hey man, this black dude loves Steve McQueen! He doesn't have like a Michael Jordan T-shirt?' I go, 'I love Michael Jordan, I'm from Chicago. But I want you to see me, that I like Steve McQueen,'" he said, adding, "It's too easy to put on a Tupac T-shirt."

And although he hits the gym, Godfrey spurns ever performing in something revealing like a tank top, and cringes when other men do: "I go to the gym, blah blah blah, but muscles aren't funny."

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Anthony Jeselnik

Unless a comedian throws in a joke about their Hawaiian shirt, "clothing should be the last thing on the audience's mind," Comedy Central darling Anthony Jeselnik said. But when the star of the network's The Jeselnik Offensive was getting ready to film his one-hour special, Caligula, last year, he headed to John Varvatos on a fashion mission.

"I knew I wanted to wear a sport coat," he said. "I don't know why, I never wore a sport coat on stage, but for this special I was like, 'I gotta be wearing a jacket.'"

But looking back on the show, Jeselnik said he felt overdressed. He wishes he kept it simpler with just a T-shirt instead of a dress shirt.

"There's a weird thing for comedians, and I think we all do this — you wear something on TV that you would never normally wear. You don't even think about it till afterwards," he admitted. "You're like, 'Why was I wearing this weird outfit?'"

Wearing what she calls "loud blouses" and describing herself as "kind of like a Jewish Stevie Nicks," surrealist comedian Kate Berlant said she likes to dress like she's going out for the night, but tries to avoid putting too much concern into the process — though others around her are not always as blasé.

"I remember someone saying to me, 'Hey, you know, you shouldn't dress up.' Or I've heard other women talk about them being really concerned about being pretty, or looking too pretty. Which is interesting to me because I've never had that hesitation," she said. "I've never worried about that."

Female comedians have to surpass being pigeonholed into two categories, the Brooklyn-based comic opined: Being radically sexualized, or radically de-sexualized. "Someone will see a pretty girl on stage and they'll be like, 'What? Stop the DJ! This is crazy!' And then suddenly what's being done on stage doesn't match up in the image."

Sometimes all it takes is one little factor for an outfit to feel dressed-up enough for performing, said New York comedian Josh Gondelman, who makes a habit of wearing dress shoes onstage.

"It's not like it's a tie where everyone sees that you're wearing a tie and it's a very conscious choice and you feel it while you're onstage," he said. "For me, wearing nice shoes reminds me that what I'm doing is performative."

But the co-founder of the Modern Seinfeld Twitter account said he uses the rest of his get-up as shorthand to help convey what kind of person he is, and to help the audience understand his comedy.

"If I'm wearing a cardigan with a solid-colored shirt underneath or a collared shirt, and that with my face and glasses, [the audience] is like, 'Oh, this is kind of a Weezer-y guy.' Like that kind of vibe," he said. "Not a comic book nerd necessarily, but kind of a self-conscious guy."

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Lisa Lampanelli

Before she lost over 100 pounds, Lampanelli had an onstage dress-code reminiscent of a '50s housewife. But when she opened her mouth, her hard-edged jokes came off as anything but. She stumbled into discovering the added humor from her outfits twelve years ago, after arriving late to a comedy set at Caroline's, decked out in a conservative outfit from an earlier audition.

"It really drove home the comedy because it was such an opposite of how I performed, the way I dressed was so different," she said, adding that she thinks it boosted her success a bit to have a look people could identify her with.

Now, Lampanelli has fun putting effort into her performance outfits, marrying hard and soft looks like snakeskin jeans and a blouse. But she still remembers a time when getting dressed was a chore, recalling a meltdown at a Macy's in Tuscon, AZ while struggling to find an outfit for the Howard Stern show, after she had gained back some weight. The now-51-year-old took took her anger out on "male hipster comics" who can get ready in five minutes and not be judged for how they look.

"I was so pissed off I was going, 'These fucking men get to throw on a fucking T-shirt off the fucking floor and they don't have to do hair, they don't have to do makeup, and we get fucked because we have to do all this goddamn shit not to be made fun of,'" she said. "Women aren't allowed to look like shit and get judged just for being funny."

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